We are saddened to learn that Rod & Custom Magazine editor and founder of Camarillo, California, Neuspeed Performance Systems; Bill Neumann died September 6, 2016. Hitting the East Coast car show circuit with his channeled 1931 high boy roadster in 1961, a chance meeting with Car Craft’s Dick Day landed him a staff position at Car Craft. When the entire staff of Rod & Custom was fired over some hi-jinx later in the year Neumann became R&C’s new editor starting with the December 1961 issue. He directed the editorial content toward a “junior” HOT ROD slant, so model car building, slot cars, and wild Ed Roth and George Barris creations became a big part of the package. Scale models and slot cars were so popular that for eight months Petersen Publishing added a second R&C called Rod & Custom Models that was devoted exclusively to that subject matter, though as Neumann lamented, “I was doing two magazines a month but paid for doing one.” By 1966 Neumann left R&C to first start an advertising agency specializing in marketing, engineering, and consulting for the aftermarket, and then through his work promoting both the Ford Pinto and then VW Rabbit he started Neuspeed specializing in 4-banger performance applications. For decades Neuspeed has flourished in the tuner market. In his later years he found time to build a 1932 Ford roadster and coupe, both independently suspended high boys built to as high a standard as he applied to all projects he was involved with. He was also an advocate for wounded vets, having given an Action Track wheelchair to a wounded vet through donations from employees from his company. “We’re a small company, so we’re trying to set an example of a small company doing the best we can for the veterans that do the most for us,” Neumann said. “They earn our freedom for us.” His three sons Gary, Aaron, and Jeff survive him.
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